NOTES AND QUERIES. 21 



Capercaillie, Black Grouse, and Pheasant (all polygamous birds), at 

 Christiania and elsewhere, and remain firmly of opinion that this present 

 instance must be classed amongst them. I may add that there are no 

 grounds (based on dissection) for calling it " a fine male," else I could only 

 urge my point with extreme hesitation. It came from somewhere near 

 Longtown, close to the border, aud was bought at a game-dealer's shop in 

 Carlisle by my uncle ; and the sex, I regret to say, was not ascertained. I 

 will send a description (as close as the case it is in will permit), if the 

 Editor thinks it would be of interest. I feel compelled to take exception, 

 also, to the suggestion that Grouse have not been known to undertake 

 regular periodical migrations (torn. cit. p. 40). Grouse from different moors 

 vary quite sufficiently in plumage and size to make it hardly worth while 

 to wait for " marked birds." May I call Mr. Macpherson's attention to an 

 undoubted case in his own county of Cumberland, mentioned in Clarke and 

 Roebuck's ' Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrates ' sub voce " Grouse." I 

 have examples in my collection of Cleveland Grouse shot (by myself) on a 

 Cumberland moor, where they make their appearance regularly every year. 

 Mr. Macpherson would do well to study the extent of this phenomenon on 

 other moors as well ; it would be likely to lead to results of great interest. 

 Lastly, will Mr. Macpherson pardon me if I venture to suggest that it 

 would have been well not to allow such expressions as " using his spurs " 

 (p. 28), " with his spurs " (p. 29), to pass without some sort of protest. — 

 Henry H. Slater. 



[To this communication Mr. Macpherson sends the following ex- 

 planation.] 



11 Perhaps I may venture to supplement Mr. Slater's note with the 

 necessary reminder that I had no opportunity myself of forming an 

 independent opinion on the bird, which I do not remember exactly. The 

 owner of the bird, Mr. Horrocks, is a good sportsman aud naturalist, who 

 had the bird in the flesh, and I accepted his ipse dixit for whatever it might 

 be, considering at that time that he knew far more than I did about game- 

 birds, which I had not then studied at all. Mr. Slater took no exception to 

 the original record, so that I assumed that he concurred in his uncle's opinion, 

 and I therefore copied the original record on two subsequent occasions. I 

 was, of course, anxious to see the bird, but ill-health prevented my availing 

 myself of its owner's kind invitations to his house. I am often asked to 

 investigate the local migrations of Grouse in the North of England. It is 

 useless, however, to attempt any enquiry of the kind, unless several 

 owners or lessees of moors can be prevailed on to attach metal labels to a 

 number of small Grouse. Even if such a course were seriously under* 

 taken for a single season, we should learn a good deal. In the meantime, 

 it seems to me that the mere theories of keepers on the subject are 

 valueless. Nothiug short of a system of marking birds, carried out on a 



